Gangbing Song, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston, recently presented his state-of-the-art smart materials research and their applications at the 18th Annual Mechanical Engineering Conference at the Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico last month.

University of Houston engineering student Sandy Geffert has been named one of 20 national recipients of the Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-doctoral Fellowship Program from NASA. Geffert is a doctoral student in the mechanical engineering department, and has been working on NASA projects for several years with associate professor Stanley Kleis.

Pradeep Sharma, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston, received the Office of Naval Research’s Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award for his proposal on the Novel Size-Effects in the Coupled Mechanical Deformation and Opto-Electronic Behavior of Quantum Dots and Wires. The total award of $262, 471 for three years is intended to further propel Sharma’s research.

Cummins, Inc., a Fortune 500 company best known for its world-class diesel engines, is donating an engine dynamometer and engine to the UH Diesel Engine Controls Research Facility in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The company has also recently underwritten a $30,000 fellowship for UH mechanical engineering students, and has played host to two summer interns in its hometown headquarters in Columbus, Ind.

While the student body was settling into the rhythm of the semester, UH engineering doctoral candidate and alumna Sandra Geffert (2003 MSME, 2001 BSME) was competing for international titles at the World Kickboxing Championships in Basle, Switzerland. During the six-day trip, Geffert competed in seven events. In Chinese soft style kata and open forms, Geffert took the gold, and she won silver in tae kwon do forms and a bronze in team forms.

Stanley Kleis, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, received one of NASA’s highest honors, the Public Service Medal, at the NASA Honor Awards Ceremony Tuesday at the Johnson Space Center. The award recognizes exceptional contributions to the mission of NASA by those who are not government employees.

UH engineers became one of the first few in the world to fabricate wires and coils from magnesium diboride (MgB₂), the most recent superconductor yet to be discovered, and their success may ultimately lead to better and less expensive electrical devices, lower energy consumption and lower consumer costs on electrical power. Their accomplishments were featured on the cover of the journal “Superconductor Science and Technology” in February and April 2004.

Ning Ma, mechanical Ph.D. student who works in Prof. Gangbing Song's Smart Materials and Structures Lab, displays one of his research project at UH Research Day April 5.

Mechanical Engineering graduate student Ryan Link makes playful use of a laser pointer to illustrate the laser vibrometer research he is involved with under the tutelage of mechanical engineering professor David Zimmerman. The laser vibrometer, which the mechanical engineering department acquired in July 2003, is used to measure the vibrations in solid objects in a non-contacting manner, therefore avoiding the use of sensors or accelerometers that alter the object.